Samuel Marx

After the death of Irving Thalberg in 1936, Marx shifted his focus to producing and was responsible for such MGM films as "The Longest Night" (1936); the first Andy Hardy film, "A Family Affair" (1937); and "Lassie Come Home" (1943). In the 1950s he began working in TV, serving as executive producer on several Desilu productions including "December Bride" as well as producing "General Electric Hour" and "Broken Arrow." In the 70s Marx became a full-time chronicler of Hollywood with his insider profiles of the industry: "Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints" (1975); "Rodgers and Hart: Bewitched, Bothered and Bedeviled" (1977, with Jan Clayton); "A Gaudy Spree: The Literary Life of Hollywood in the 1930s" (1987); and "Deadly Illusions: Jean Harlow and the Murder of Paul Bern" (1990). Marx frequently assisted researchers of the golden age of Hollywood, appearing in the 1979 Kevin Brownlow-David Gill "Hollywood" series as well as the TNT special series "MGM: When the Lion Roars," broadcast the month of his death in 1992.